Season Preview
This team just might be ready to make a move. Our QB is putting things together, and our running game took shape last year. We have gotten good results from our defense thus far, and have at least one new player who ought to help right away in CB Bratsch. Last year we finished 6-10, but had stats to support a better result – with roughly the same effort and a little better luck, this team could be an 8 or 9 win team. If we improve on our effort – and maybe get Peter Hartman and Wayne Conley back into the fold for a healthy season– we might even be better than that.
Our goal is to make the playoffs this year. I don’t think it’s a sure thing at all, but I think it is possible.
Strategically, only one change – I’m going to a more comventional setup of formations. We won’t be depending on the 2TE setup as much as before, and we expect to see our Wrs get a little more love from the change. We’ll also let the downfield passing game rise in our priorities more than in the past. Don’t know how big a deal this will be. The defensive gameplan (which I don’t change week to week either) will remain the same as last year – 3-4 front, man coverage, low blitzing.
2024 Season
We start off with a solid road win over Indy, but they were picking 1(1) this year, so no need to get too enthused about that. And of course, we lose Peter Hartman right away, for 6 weeks with an elbow. We’ll just need to be prepared to never see him be productive again, I’m increasingly convinced.
I decide to go with the rookie Powell as our second starter at DE, and hope to see him develop with the playing time. We don’t have great options otherwise, really. Veteran Kirk O’Neal will split time with DT Poston at the other DE slot.
In week two, we beat Detroit, and Bernard Blackburn pulls off an unlikely 80-yard RUN for a TD. Wow. Two more wins, and we stand at 4-0 for the season… we had a fast start last year, too, so we need to contain our enthusiasm here. But our defense is playing just lights-out football right now.
We get to 7-0, and I’ll post the snapshot team summary here:
Code:
Front Office Football 2004
2024 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars
Record: 7-0
Winning Pct.: 1.000
Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 208 3 (T)
Rushing Yards 980 2
Yards Per Carry 4.71 3
Pass Attempts 233 9
Completions 148 6 (T)
Passing Yards 1613 10
Yards Per Attempt 6.92 17
3rd Down Conversions 45.8 12
Points Per Game 23.8 9
Turnovers 6 7 (T)
Turnover Margin +7 3
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 157 5
Rushing Yards 544 4
Yards Per Carry 3.46 2
Pass Attempts 276 32
Completions 140 25
Passing Yards 1773 31
Yards Per Attempt 6.42 5
3rd Down Conversions 38.8 7
Points Per Game 14.2 1 (T)
Turnovers 13 2 (T)
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 229 146 1586 6.92 10 3
**Team --- 233 148 1613 6.92 10 3
I post the summary now, because QB Blackburn (93 passer rating) is injured with a torn ankle ligament, and lost for the remainder of the season. So, we’ll presumably go with Warholic from here, and we’ll see if the team can maintain its mighty roll.
Warholic is 18 of 22 in his re-debut, and I’m awfully glad we re-upped with him, but our offense sputtered a bit against Buffalo to a 21-20 win. TE Wayne Conley goes down next, suggesting that we might have two star players on the outs with serious injury problems.
We get another 1-popint victory, with our game MVP being none other than… Peter Hartman, with 3 sacks! He’s back – but for how long this time?
Irving Warholic keeps racking up 4th quarter heroics, as we need them to continue our win streak to 11-0. Three of his four starts have been by late scores to win by two points or less. The run continues…
Until week 15 – we lose at home to Tennessee, and slip to 13-1. Wow. Warholic got hurt, so rookie Bernie Wells came in, and was just awful. And there goes the perfect season, which was so improbably within reach. We summarily drop our last two games with Wells in at QB, and head to the preseason looking like dead weight without a legitimate QB to accompany this otherwise juggernaut of a team. But it appears that the bye week will give Warholic enough time to resume the starting duties – so we might be a tough out after all.
Code:
2024 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars
Record: 13-3
Winning Pct.: .812
Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 472 10
Rushing Yards 2040 14
Yards Per Carry 4.32 14
Pass Attempts 552 5
Completions 338 8 (T)
Passing Yards 3715 13
Yards Per Attempt 6.73 22
3rd Down Conversions 45.6 13
Points Per Game 21.6 13
Turnovers 27 29
Turnover Margin -4 23 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 401 5
Rushing Yards 1445 2 (T)
Yards Per Carry 3.60 2
Pass Attempts 582 31 (T)
Completions 312 10
Passing Yards 3878 23
Yards Per Attempt 6.66 7
3rd Down Conversions 38.7 3
Points Per Game 17.3 6 (T)
Turnovers 23 9 (T)
Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 20 at IND 10
2 16 at DET 13
3 27 at CLE 10
4 24 NYJ 9
5 27 MIA 24
6 19 IND 13
7 34 at TEN 21
9 21 at BUF 20
10 17 at NED 16
11 31 HOU 20
12 24 MIN 22
13 28 OAK 10
14 17 at CHI 3
15 16 TEN 24
16 20 GBY 34
17 6 at HOU 28
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 229 146 1586 6.92 10 3
13 Warholic QB 197 126 1503 7.62 11 8
14 Wells QB 95 49 495 5.21 1 5
**Team --- 552 338 3715 6.73 24 17
Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 291 1271 4.36 9
48 Creamer RB 89 329 3.69 0
26 Bates FB 50 213 4.26 0
**Team --- 472 2040 4.32 11
Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
85 McNown WR 122 67 828 12.3 170 6
7 Raymond WR 116 67 955 14.2 185 7
3 Foley TE 84 54 517 9.5 110 3
87 Conley TE 64 48 452 9.4 136 2
28 Stargell WR 53 29 350 12.0 43 2
89 Hyatt WR 38 23 241 10.4 26 2
22 Schultz RB 27 21 130 6.1 72 2
**Team --- 552 338 3715 10.9 852 24
Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
33 Becker S 73 26 0.0 0 0 16
77 Griffin DT 72 30 11.5 22 0 0
90 Graham OLB 71 33 0.0 0 1 9
24 Nathan S 67 23 0.0 0 2 13
91 Beeck OLB 64 25 1.0 1 4 3
92 Sellers ILB 59 18 0.0 0 0 6
21 Myers CB 55 16 0.0 0 5 21
99 Saga OLB 46 18 0.0 0 0 1
42 Campbell CB 43 19 0.0 0 1 18
94 Parrella ILB 36 13 0.0 0 1 3
78 Hartman DE 31 6 10.0 15 0 1
35 McNeil CB 24 7 0.0 0 3 6
75 Poston DT 22 15 3.5 6 0 1
97 O'Neal DE 18 4 5.0 15 0 1
45 Bratsch CB 16 5 0.0 0 0 0
**Team --- 796 265 32.0 66 17 101
Well, what an unbelievable season. A 13-0 run, after going 6-10 the previous season. I thought we’d improve, but I didn’t see this coming at all.
Blackburn was heading for a career year, and Warholic filled in adequately and kept things moving. RB Schultz has entrenched himself as a workhorse starter at RB, and had a very nice season for us – he’s not flashy, just a straight-ahead runner, but effective. WR Jon Raymond ends up topping our receiving list for his first time, perhaps due to the injury to TE Conley (who led us up until his injury). Great season for the OL – all six qualifying players were over 30% on KRBs and under 1.0% on sacks allowed. Nice work.
Defensively, the numbers held up – and Peter Hartman actually played in 10 games, after we had all but written him off for good. DT Griffin has to get an all-pro nod once again, with big numbers from the middle for us. We had some shuffling on the D7, but all told they held up beautifully. The secondary played well, too – having four CBs we like is a nice situation to be in.
Postseason Summary
Divisional Playoff: Buffalo (9-8) at Jacksonville (13-3) – We beat them by one in the regular season, now we are ready to beat them again. QB Warholic and TE Conley are back, and we’ll try to get a good playoff debut. This is a wild one – Warholic leads us for two 4th quarter TDs to even things up, but Buffalo scored in OT to win it 30-24.
So, we are one and done in the playoffs – disappointing after the red hot start, but understandable.
Baltimore goes on to win the title over Green Bay. Oddly, the Superbowl MVP is QB Quentin Bernard, a guy I drafted when at Baltimore back in 2015, but dealt away (I think). The Ravens signed him off the FA scrap heap, and he started 12 games and won the big one for them.
DT Darren Griffin, first team, is our only all-pro honoree.